Phoenix rotated her hands, charging up her signature flame tornado, preparing to kill what remained of the apes in one go. But then a roar echoed through the gorge they were in.
*RAWR!*
The stone apes all lifted their head to the roar, echoing it with theirs, which was much less intimidating. Then they started retreating altogether.
Phoenix had to cancel her channelling, lest she waste mana on a targetless spell. The party looked upward, in the direction of the roar.
Staring at them, from the same ledge the other monkeys had descended earlier, was another ape. This one was much larger, and his fur was covered with plates of stone, almost like armor.
Its beady black eyes were staring back at them. Then, the ape turned its head to where Astaroth was still mowing down its brethren.
pαпdα-ňᴏνêι·сóМ It roared again, before jumping to him, aiming to crush him on the landing. But Astaroth was not oblivious to the situation.
When the ape was airborne, he jumped back towards his party, steering clear of danger for now. Then he stared at the monkey, scanning him too.
Stone Ape King:
Level: 45
Grade: Special (Zone Boss)
HP: 189'500
MP: 5'500
"Careful, guys. This one is much stronger," Astaroth said, without looking back.
Gulnur, who was standing next to him, chuckled.
"Say that to your face, you battle maniac."
Astaroth had a maniacal grin plastered on his lips. Stronger opponents made his blood boil, he couldn't help it.
The ape king, seeing his foes did not take him seriously, roared again, drumming his massive fists on his stone-plated chest. He then plunged his hand into the ground, pulling a huge chunk of stone out.
"He's gonna throw a rock! Get inside the water shield!" Phoenix said to Gulnur and Astaroth.
Both guys obeyed the call, dashing for the water bubble behind them. But before they could reach it, Athena shouted, "Watch out!".
Gulnur turned his head slightly, seeing that it was no longer a massive rock coming at them. In its place, there were around fifty shards of stone, all zipping through the gorge.
His instincts told him this was not something the water bubble would endure. As soon as he crossed into it, and Astaroth passed by him, he lifted his shield.
"Get behind me!" he shouted.
"Bastion of Stone!" he then called out, bracing his shield to the ground with both hands.
When the shield contacted the ground, the stone started climbing up onto it, before expanding outwards rapidly. A second later, a stone slab three meters wide and six meters high was standing in place of the tower shield.
The top of it pierced through the water bubble, but didn't destroy it. He erected the stone shield just in time, as the rock projectiles flew through the water bubble almost unimpeded, and impacted it.
Shrapnel of stone could be seen flying to the side until there were no projectiles left. Gulnur's skill also ended shortly after, as it was a very short-lasting skill.
The ape king roared in discontent, seeing his skill had no effect, and charged at the intruders in his domain. Since Gulnur was still recuperating from his skill, Astaroth stepped up to cover his allies.
He ran at the ape king, switching out his weapons from longsword and shortsword; to shortsword and shield. He enhanced his shield with mana, and cast mana skin, feeling he would need it.
He also used his shield bash skill, hoping to deal some return damage on impact. But the impact was much stronger than he anticipated.
Even with his upgraded strength while melded with White, the impact took a huge chunk of his health, and sent him flying backwards, toward his allies. Violette used a waterfall spell to catch him.
This brought him back to his feet, albeit wet, without taking additional collision damage with a wall or other obstacle. His arms were numb from the impact, but he was satisfied with the result, anyway.
The ape king had also taken some damage, less than him, but that was irrelevant, and his fist had been knocked back, too. Some steam could be seen coming off the fist, too.
Astaroth looked at his melding timer and saw he had less than two minutes left. He still hadn't summoned Luna either, trying to make sure he was using all his bonuses to the fullest.
Now that all the apes were coordinating with the king, the combat would gain a degree of difficulty that wasn't present before. But no one in the party complained.
This zone boss just gave them free experience in their opinion. No one present was worried about a special grade zone boss of level forty-five.
All of them, apart from Astaroth and Violette, had been in dungeons before, and bosses like these were common there. And for the latter two, they had just fought one, two weeks before this.
The ape king roared, pointing its meaty hand forward, as the smaller apes all charged forward. Astaroth uttered a guttural howl of his own, before dashing forward with enhanced speed.
Astaroth had cast a wind spell around his feet again, as he had done previously, and this time, it registered as a new spell.
*Ding*
*New spell created. Wind Walking has been added to your spell list.*
He didn't need to look at the spell description, to know what it did, as he instantly felt the increase in his running speed. He was running at approximately fifty percent faster than usual, by his calculation.
This gave him the edge he needed to keep mowing down apes left and right, without getting caught by the ape king that kept trying to squish him under its massive body.
In the meantime, spells and arrows were flying around him, hitting enemies that were going to surround him, or go around him, making sure he was safe from all angles.
He thanked Phoenix, Athena, and Violette in the group chat, since he didn't have time to shout it out. Gulnur, for his part, kept harassing the king ape, trying to take its aggro back.
It wasn't a simple task, since Astaroth kept killing its subjects and had done some good damage on it earlier too. But he eventually succeeded, buying Astaroth some breathing room.
Soon, his melding timed out, and before long, he was back to normal.
'Time for the big guns,' Astaroth thought, grinning madly.
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